Destruction by Man 53 



the New England coast as a deadly region, to be 

 visited only at night and then only when they 

 were too exhausted to continue their flight. 



After spending the winter in South America, 

 the dough birds went back to their northern 

 homes by a different route, by way of the Gulf 

 States, and in the spring months were seen in 

 great numbers on the western prairies and in 

 the Mississippi Valley. But they fared no bet- 

 ter in the west than they did in New England 

 and were massacred wherever they went. If 

 one was wounded and cried out, many of its 

 companions would at once come and hover over 

 it, and this habit must have helped in its destruc- 

 tion by cowboys and others. 



The Esquimau curlew was doomed. Its num- 

 bers began to diminish rather slowly at first, 

 but rapidly later on. The great flights became 

 less and less frequent and smaller and smaller in 

 size until at last they ceased and the bird is now 

 believed to be practically extinct. Specimens 

 are still shot occasionally; an individual was 

 taken as late as September 5, 1913, at East 

 Orleans, Massachusetts. 



Besides these birds which have gone forever, 

 there are a number more which have been per- 

 secuted until they have disappeared from the 

 greater part of their former range and in some 



